Photos showing alleged abuses by U.S. troops to be released May 28th

[Reason]

UPDATE - In reverse, Obama seeks to block abuse photos - UPDATE (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=2122091#post2122091)

Obama administration to release photos showing alleged abuses by U.S. troops
While fearing backlash, White House to release images in May

By Peter Wallsten, Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes | Washington Bureau
April 24, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse by U.S. personnel during the Bush administration of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least 44 pictures will be released by May 28, making public for the first time images of what the military investigated at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Defense Department officials would not say exactly what is contained in the photos but said they are concerned the release could incite a Mideast backlash.

The photos, taken from Air Force and Army criminal investigations, apparently are not as shocking as the photographs from the Abu Ghraib investigation that became a lasting symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But some show military personnel intimidating or threatening detainees by pointing weapons at them. Military officers have been court-martialed for threatening detainees at gunpoint.

"This will constitute visual proof that, unlike the Bush administration's claim, the abuse was not confined to Abu Ghraib and was not aberrational," said Amrit Singh, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the agreement as part of a long-running legal battle for documents related to Bush-era anti-terror policies.

The decision to release the photos comes as President Barack Obama is trying to quell a drive to investigate Bush administration moves against terrorism. But now the photos and a series of other possible disclosures stemming from the ACLU suit risk inflaming an already explosive controversy.

Additional disclosures to be considered in the coming weeks include transcripts of detainee interrogations by the CIA, a CIA inspector general's report that has been kept mostly secret and background materials of a Justice Department internal investigation into prisoner abuse.

Last week, Obama opted to demand relatively few redactions in released Justice Department memos detailing the Bush administration's justifications and strategies for harsh interrogations.

But those disclosures prompted Democrats and advocacy interest groups to demand a congressional probe. With Obama trying to navigate ambitious legislation through Congress, the White House fears that such an investigation could become a partisan distraction -- and Obama already has rejected the idea of a 9/11 commission-style review of Bush anti-terrorism policies, according to an official.

While Obama's liberal base wants wide disclosure and an investigation of Bush administration practices, that could alienate the intelligence and military communities.

"My sense is the president was trying to please a lot of audiences at one time and that over the last [week] he has totally failed to put the mind of the intelligence community at ease," said Mark Lowenthal, a former senior adviser to onetime CIA Director George Tenet. "He is going to end up with a national clandestine service that will not be willing to do anything because they feel he will not be there for them when they need him."

[Reason]

On one hand I feel that there should be public disclosure of what Bush did...

On the other hand I feel sick to my stomach knowing that these pictures will be used to recruit more extremists and will absolutely result in many American deaths. :(

Shitty situation to say the least... this is by far the greatest argument for never having traveled down this path in the first place :mad:

[Reason]

bump??

[AuH20]

This was done for purely political reasons. Thats the worst part of it all. Its a sideshow to distract us.

[DeadheadForPaul]

I gotta say that I disagree with Obama's decision to release these pictures.

We already know about the horrible things perpetrated in our names. Pictures will only be used to further embolden radical Jihadists

[Reason]

YouTube - White House Asked About New Prisoner Abuse Photos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UXeKXMKPo4)

[Reason]

This was done for purely political reasons. Thats the worst part of it all. Its a sideshow to distract us.

Watch the video I just posted above,

[rpfan2008]

Obama: Hmm ppl are going to compare me with Bush and I have fallen to his levels on almost everything . Let's demonize Bush even more to make me look better.
Mullen..give me your hard drive.

[Reason]

Obama: Hmm ppl are going to compare me with Bush and I have fallen to his levels on almost everything . Let's demonize Bush even more to make me look better.
Mullen..give me your hard drive.

I think you missed the part where this is being caused by a lawsuit that occurred during the Bush presidency...

[AuH20]

Obama: Hmm ppl are going to compare me with Bush and I have fallen to his levels on almost everything . Let's demonize Bush even more to make me look better.
Mullen..give me your hard drive.

If Obama was serious about exposing those responsible, he would have never killed an independent investigation panel into these crimes. Its all one, big game. Just like him, its all mirrors.

[Liberty Star]

Sending 5-6 low ranking Abu Ghraib militray personnel for torture seems like a grave injustice. Obama will have little choice in the end and will have to hold big fish involved accountable. Torture culpability goes up to Bush's top men.

[Reason]

Obama will have little choice in the end and will have to hold big fish involved accountable.

I have little to no faith that the "big fish" will actually be held "accountable" :(

[idiom]

maybe it will get people motivated to actually end the war.

[Reason]

bump

[purplechoe]

Watch the video I just posted above,

"He's more interested in looking forward" :rolleyes:

[Liberty Star]

This is very interesting headline, in a weird way it creates the suspense like "movie xyz will open on June 20". Why such advance notice?

[ItsTime]

maybe it will get people motivated to actually end the war.

Or at least ask what his exit plans are for Afghanistan

[Reason]

In reverse, Obama seeks to block abuse photos

By JENNIFER LOVEN – 33 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will try to block the court-ordered release of hundreds of photos showing U.S. troops allegedly abusing prisoners, reversing his position after military commanders warned the graphic images could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger soldiers.

The pictures show are said to show mistreatment of detainees at locations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House announced Obama's decision Wednesday, after top military commanders in the two wars expressed fears that showing the pictures could put their troops at higher risk. When photos emerged in 2004 from the infamous U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison, showing grinning U.S. soldiers posing with detainees — some of the prisoners naked, some being held on leashes — the pictures caused a huge anti-American backlash around the globe, particularly in the Muslim world.

The administration said last month it would not fight a court order that the photos be released by May. 28. But Obama concluded he did not feel comfortable with the release, concerned they would inflame tensions in Iraq and Afghanistan and make the U.S. mission in those two wars more difficult, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Military commanders' concerns are most intense with respect to Afghanistan. The release would coincide with the spring thaw that usually heralds the year's toughest fighting there — and as thousands of new U.S. troops head into Afghanistan's volatile south.

The effort to keep the photos from becoming public represented a sharp reversal from Obama's repeated pledges for open government, and in particular from his promise to be forthcoming with information that courts have ruled should be publicly available.

As such, it was sure to invite criticism from people, including more liberal segments of the Democratic Party, that want a full accounting — and even redress — for what they see as the misdeeds of the Bush administration.

Federal appeals judges had ruled, in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, that the photos should be released, and the Justice Department had concluded that further appeal would probably be fruitless.

Last month, Gibbs said the president had concurred with Justice's conclusion, though without commenting on whether Obama would support the release if not pressed by a court case.

Thus, the Obama administration assured a federal judge month that it would turn over the material by May 28, including one batch of 21 photos and another of 23 images. The government also told the judge it was "processing for release a substantial number of other images," for a total expected to be in the hundreds.

Gibbs emphasized that the president continues to believe that the actions depicted in the photos should not be excused and supports the investigations, prison sentences, discharges and other punitive measures that have resulted from them.

He said the new decision does not contradict Obama's promises of transparency, since details about investigations into the abuse are available on the Pentagon's Web site. "The notion that somehow you don't know about these investigations because you haven't seen the photos doesn't make any sense," he said.

However, the ACLU quickly lambasted Obama's move.

"The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obama's promise of transparency and accountability," said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh, who had argued and won the case before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. "It is essential that these photographs be released so that the public can examine for itself the full scale and scope of prisoner abuse that was conducted in its name."

On Capitol Hill, the top Senate Republican welcomed the change. A military group also said it was relieved, because it feared terrorists would use the pictures as a recruiting tool.

"These photos represent isolated incidents where the offending servicemen and women have already been prosecuted," said Brian Wise, executive director of Military Families United. "There is no good that can come from releasing these photos."

The reactions were a reverse of what happened after Obama's decision last month to release documents that detailed brutal interrogation techniques used by the CIA against terror suspects. Those also came out in response to an ACLU lawsuit, and his decision then invited harsh and still-continuing criticism from Republicans.

This time he's kicking the decision back into court, where his administration still may be forced into releasing the photos.

Indeed, there is some evidence that the administration has little case left.

Gibbs said the president instructed administration lawyers to challenge the photos' release based on the national security implications of such a release. He said that argument was not used before.

"The president does not believe that the strongest case regarding the release of these photos was presented to the court," he said.

But the Bush administration already argued against the release on national security grounds — and lost.

"It is plainly insufficient to claim that releasing documents could reasonably be expected to endanger some unspecified member of a group so vast as to encompass all United States troops, coalition forces, and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan," the three-judge appeals panel wrote in September 2008.

The court also has already rejected another argument Gibbs made, that the photos add little of value to the public's understanding of the issue. "This contention disregards FOIA's central purpose of furthering governmental accountability," the appeals court panel concluded in the same decision.

Obama's own Jan. 21 memorandum on honoring the Freedom of Information Act also takes a different line than the administration did on Wednesday. "The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears," it said.

The president informed Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, of his decision during a White House meeting on Tuesday.

Gen. David Petraeus, the senior commander for both wars, had also weighed in against the release, as had Gen. David McKiernan, the outgoing top general in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he had once held the view that it might be best to "go through the pain once" and release a large batch of images now, since so many are at issue in multiple lawsuits. But he — and the president — had a change of heart when Odierno and McKiernan expressed "very great worry that release of these photographs will cost American lives," Gates said before the House Armed Services Committee.

"That's all it took for me," Gates said.

Associated Press writers Anne Gearan, Devlin Barrett, Lara Jakes and Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Reason]

YouTube - Obama: Photos Not "Sensational," Would "Inflame Anti-America (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Y0c--VgAo)

[idiom]

Can you feel the Change?

[Anti Federalist]

What a surprise.

YouTube - Wont Get Fooled Again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6-wG5LLqE)

[Dieseler]

Call attention to photos of abuse...
Pause...
Take the high road and claim to block release.
Pause...
Then release them anyway.

Google; Here are a few of the torture photos...
He's far slicker than Willy ever was.
:(